Chief Executive’s comments – Justin Ratcliffe

Talking aluminium and sustainability

A clear trend for the early part of the 21st Century within our sector is that main contractors and clients will increasingly only deal with responsibly sourced supply chains.

Whether we like it or not, sustainability runs through just about everything we do, it’s simply inescapable. Within the supply chain we must be able to deal with the questions set by architects, specifiers, consultants, contractors and clients, draw on targets set for the future and highlight ongoing work and progress to date. Clearly trade associations such as CAB have an important role to play in all of this.

CAB is currently working on four aluminium and sustainability projects:

A project with BRE to update aluminium’s generic environmental profiles. In this work we are being supported by the International Aluminium Institute (IAI) and the UK Aluminium Federation. Data has been supplied by both European Aluminium Association (EAA) and IAI. CAB has been nominated by EAA to be the UK gateway to their Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) tool which is based on ISO standards. CAB, together with other material trade associations, is working towards a Defra product roadmap for windows. The roadmap addresses the lifecycle environmental impacts as well as the contribution of window systems to increasing the sustainability of buildings. CAB is actively working with representatives of the worldwide aluminium sector towards a responsible aluminium scheme. This aims to develop a credible and independently verifiable aluminium scheme that seeks to minimise impact and improve performance throughout the aluminium value chain, recognised by the industry and external stakeholders.

A plethora of data and reports is available to highlight work being undertaken in the aluminium sector. CAB produced an Aluminium and Sustainability report which can be downloaded from the home page of our website at www.c-a-b.org.uk.

In producing the report, CAB worked closely with both the European Aluminium Association (EAA) and the International Aluminium Institute (IAI). The latter has produced the fourth (2008) in its series of Sustainable Bauxite Mining Reports. It highlights global data on the environmental, social and economic impact of bauxite mining operations and their rehabilitation programmes. One key finding was that over the five-year period 2002-6, the average annual rehabilitation area of existing bauxite mining areas is equal to the average annual area being opened up. In this steady state environment, bauxite mining is ‘land area footprint neutral’ and sustainable. The report is downloadable at www.world-aluminium.org .

For more information or queries on aluminium and sustainability or CAB’s activities contact Justin on 01453 828851 or email justin.ratcliffe@c-a-b.org.uk.